Road-cart



(No' Model.) 7

H. M. WILLIS; BOA-D CART.

No. 447,391. Patented Mar. 3, 1891 TN: mums runs ca mow-mum, wAsHmaYuN,n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY M. IVILLIS, OF EAST IVIIJLISTON, NEIV YORK.

ROAD- CART.

SPECIFICATION forming 514. of Letters Patent No. 447,391, dated March 3,1891.

Application filed Tune 16, 1890.

springs, and adapted for fast driving over either smooth or rough roads.Each side of the body is provided with a stout horizontal top bar orrave, which forms a substantial attachment for the springs and thills. Iconnect the thills to the top bars by means of springs rigidly held bothto the body and thills, so that the connection is elastic asdistinguished from pivotal, and such connection is made in rear ofthe'front of the body, so as to reduce the amount of fiexure of thesprings with a given degree of tilting of the body. I have no pivotalconnection. I employ a safety-stop on eachside in the form of a rigidarm extending from the thill inward to a point under the rave or topbar, and I inclose each arm in aslot in an iron bolted to the rave,which allows it to play up and down as far as is ever required in theuse of the cart while in motion, but arrests it strongly and reliablywhenever any too much motion is impressed, as when a heavy man steps onthe rear edge of the body in mounting or stands in the frontof the bodyafter mounting; and I combine with this still another safety-Stop neareach side at the front in the form of a safetystrap connecting the frontof the body to the whiffletree-bar adjusted so as to provide slack forthe proper motion. So long as the cart is only slightly shaken, as bythe horse motion in being drawn by a horse at a trot, thespring-connections of the thills .to the body; are alone effective; butwhen from any cause the body is very greatly tilted relatively to thethills both the pairs of stops become effective to restrain the motionand prevent the distortion from breaking the springs, the safety-strapsbeing drawn downward or upward until the slack is taken up, and thenfirmly holding the body against further movement in that direction, andthe arms and slots also performing a similar duty, allowing quire d.

Serial No, 355,547. (No model.)

springs which connect the body to the thills. v

In such case the body is free to tilt somewhat farther than usual; butwhen it has tilted toa certain extreme extent it is restrained. The twosets of stops are effective toprevent it from tilting indefinitely. Ifthe front tends to move downward, as is usually the case in practiceunder such circumstances, the hind ends ofthe thills are held up by theslots, and the front end of the body is held up by the safety-straps; orif the body tends to tilt the other waybackwardas might happen if thedriver leaned backward on the seat, the frontof the body will rise; butits rise will soon find a limit in the relations of the two sets ofstops. The hind ends of the thills are held down by the engagement ofthe arms in the slots, the arms rising therein and striking the underface of the side bars, and the front end ofthe'body isheld down by thesafety-straps. In what I esteem the most complete form of the inventionI provide two sets of such arms, one well back near the hind end of eachthill, ready to exert a long leverage with the safety-straps and tosustain the body when the springs break, if such a disaster shall everoccur, and the other set well forward, in position to serve well inperformingthe more usual duty of restraining the tilting of the bodyrelatively to the thills under ordinary conditions when no fracture hasoccurred.

Itis sometimes required to connect the body and thills unyieldiugly.

bar across the top of the front and hold it rigidly upon the top of boththe raves and the thills,'providing means for also holding these partsfirmly up against the removable bar. This bar isapplied and removed asre- This is especially necessary in racing, as the irregular motion dueto an elastic connection tends to thi'ow. the horse off his gait. Iapply a removable The following is a description'of what I consider thebest means of carrying out the invention.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification.

Figure 1 is a side elevation, and Fig.2 is a plan view, of my cartcomplete. Figs. 3, to 8, inclusive, are on a larger scale, and showparts of the same. Fig. 3 is a side elevation. Fig. 4 is a plan view.Fig. 5 is a front view. Fig. 6 is a front view of another part. Fig. 7is a cross-section on the line 3/ y in Figs. 3 and a; and Fig. 8 is across-section on the line 00 0c in the same figures. Fig. E) is apartial plan view showing the front portion of the body set free by theremoval of the removable bar. This figure shows also a modification inthe form of the spring connection of the thills to the body. It alsoshows a less number of sets of stops.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the figureswhere they appear.

A is the body, and A the top rails extending forward and backward oneach side, sometimes known as raves. A is a corresponding top pieceextending across the front of the body.

D is the spring, rigidly secured by clips to the axle L and to the toprail or rave A on each side. It performs the function of providing forthe up-and-down motion of the body and axle relatively to each other.

M M are the thills, connected, as usual, by a whiffletree-bar M, whichlatter extends across just in front of the front rave or front top railA but at a sufficient distance to allow all usual irregularities ofmotion without touching. P P are safety-straps connecting these parts Aand M loosely together near each side by taking hold of irons undereach, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6.

D D are fiat springs of tempered steel bolted rigidly to the under sidesof the raves or top rails A by bolts (1 at about mid-length of the body,and held rigidly to the under sides of the rear ends of the thills M bythe clips m. The springs are U-shaped in plan, being each upset orotherwise thickened in the curve, so that but little of the fiexure isconcentrated there. The straight portions, extending front and rear, arewell conditioned to hold the body to the thills without looseness andwithout any pivotal action, but with liberal elasticity. A short plateN, of iron, is held firmly on the under side of the spring, and the rearend ofthis iron and also of the thill M is rounded, as shown at M* N*,to attain what is sometimes termed a cushioning action-a change of theterminal point of bearing as the spring is bent in one direction and theother.

0 O are arms extending inward toward the body from each thill Malongside the body. These arms are rigidly held on the thills by clipsm, and are provided at their inner extreme ends with hooks orright-angled parts .0 O,and are inclosed in slots in sufficientlystoutirons bolted under the top rails. These irons are marked a and are heldby bolts to. The arms 0 reach through slots in their respective ironsCL, and the hook O 011 each stands properly conditioned to be struck bythe iron in case of too great lateral vibration.

U U are arms similar to the arms 0 O, and provided with correspondinghooks U U, similar to the hooks O 0. These books and arms are similarlyengaged with slotted irons a held to the top rails A, forward of theirons a, by-bolts a IV is a removable bar lying across the cart near thefront of the body A and provided with two bolts X X, each having across-bar X X at its lower end and a thumb-nut X X at its upper end, thelatter being threaded to allow of conveniently tightening andslackening. For a race the bar V is put in position with the cross-barsX X turned to allow of their being depressed with their respective boltsX X through the space between A and H, and then the cross-bars X X areturned into the proper crosswise positions and the thumb-nuts X X areset tightly. This holds the front of the body A rigidly to the thills,and the only motion relative to each other is the rising and sinking ofthe back part of the body due to the action of the connecting-springs Din traveling over irregularities in the road or accommodating movementsof the rider. Practically the body is rigid to the thills when thusconditioned. When it is desired to set the body free, the th u mb -nutsX X are slackened, the cross-bars X X turned again fore and aft, or inlines from front to rear, and the bar W is then lifted, with itsattachments, and removed.

In the use of the cart with the bar \V in place, the front of the body,and in effect the whole body, is stiffly attached to the thills. In theordinary use of the cart with the bar 7 removed the body is free to tiltforward and backward, except as it is held by the easy springs D, untilit has tilted a certain distance. Then itsfurthertiltingrelativelyto thethills is arrested by the three sets of stopsfirst, the safety-straps P,the slack of which is limited and has then been taken up; second, thearms 0 O, loosely confined in the slotted irons a, which have nowreached their extreme downward or upward limit, and, third, the arms UU, loosely confined in the slotted irons a which have now similarlyreached their extremelimit. Thislatterset of stopsthe arms UU in theirons a (L -21Gb more efficiently than the arms 0 O in the irons a a,because they are farther from the center of motion-the rear end of thecorresponding spring D-and consequently have more leverage, or, as somewould put it, a greater moment of resistance.

In case of breakage of the springs D, which is always possible,nothwithstanding the limit to the deflection offered by the several setsof stops, new functions are developed in the stops. They serve to holdthe body not only to the thills, but in the approximately correctposition. The stops-co-act to prevent the body from tilting. The frontstops are the safety-straps P. The rear stops are the arms 0 0. Eachallows a little but only a little play. It follows that when the springsD D break, the body A remains horizontally supported. If it inclines topitch forward, the straps P hold up and the arms 0 down the partsadjacent, and if it inclines to pitch backward, the straps P hold downand the arms 0 hold up the same parts. The cart will be held fairlylevel, but subject, of course, to an objectionable irregularity ofmotion, until the springs can be repaired or replaced.

The hooks O and U are important. The safety-straps P can exert a veryefficient influence to control the up-and-down motion but they cannotserve well to resist side motions. The hooks O and U are at such adistance from their respective irons a and a that they are of no effectwhile the cart is unrestrained; but when in any exigency the body isviolently twisted to one side, these hooks arrest the motion and preventits becoming excessive.

I attach importance to the fact that the .thills are extended backwardand connected elastically to the body at a point considerably in rear ofthe front, because the arrangement gives unusual freedom for themovement of the body within the limits prescribed, and allows the use ofstrong and substantial springs. The elastic attachment of the springs isbest made at about the midlength of the body, as shown.

Modifications may be made by any good mechanic Without departing fromthe principle or sacrificing the advantages of the invention. Parts canbe used with advantage without the whole. I can dispense with one of thesets of stopsas, for example, the arms U U-and the corresponding slottedirons a a In such case the single set of stops formed by the arms 0 O,acting in the slotted irons a a, will serve, first, with the springs D Dto limit the action thereof and prevent their being too much flexed, andafterward, in case of fracture of those springs, orof one of them, thesingle set of stops 0 0 will serve with the safety-straps P P to carrythe body level, or nearly so, until the journey is ended; but both setsof arms 0 O and U U used together make a better combination, because itis important to give as long a leverage as practicable between thebearings under each condition, and when the effective bearings are therear parts of the springs D D and the arms U U the bearings are wellseparated and the leverage is long, and when, after the springs havebroken, the elfective bearings are the arms 0 O and the safety-straps PP the bearings are still well separated and the leverage in theextraordinary condition is also long. It is not possible to attain thesame effect under both conditions bya single set of arms 0 O and theirloosely-'inclosing irons a without the set of arms U U and their irons aI claim as my invention- '1. In a road-cart,the combination, with thebody, supporting-springs, and axle, of additional springs alfixed to thebody at or near its mid-length, and the thills extending along the sidesof the body independent and free thereof and of the axle, and connectedrigidly to the opposite ends of said additional springs, all arrangedsubstantially in the manner and for the purpose specified.

2. In a road-cart having thills fixed to the body by elasticconnections, a removable bar adapted to lie across the top near thefront and bear fairly on both bodyand thills, in combination with suchcart and with fastenings adapted to hold the body and thills firmly tosuch bar when required and to conveniently and entirely release theparts when required for general use, as herein specified.

In a road-cart, the arms 0 0, extending between the thills and the bodyand rigidly attached to one part, in combination with the irons a,slotted, as shown, and attached to the other part, and with springconnections D between the body and the thills, the hooks O on said armsstanding in position to defend against too great lateral motion, asherein specified.

4. In a road-cart, the arms 0 O, affixed to the thills by means of thesame clips which hold the thill and spring together, said arms extendinglaterallyand engaged with slotted irons on the body, adapted to allow alimited freedom of the motion, all substantially as herein specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, at New York city, this13th day of June, 1890, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HENRY M. WILLIS.

\Vitnesses:

